Rip City Roundtable Episode 14: Mike Barrett on Memories of Bill Walton, Broadcasting, and Blazers

Rip City Roundtable Episode 14: Mike Barrett on Memories of Bill Walton, Broadcasting, and Blazers

[Music] [Music] coming up on this week’s episode of the Rip City Round T podcast I have a very special guest Mike Barrett former Blazers play play-by-play announcer uh was with the organization for almost I mean 20 years you know doing various jobs and different things uh announced the you know Portland fire when we had a WNBA team I mean Mike goes way back and this guy you know was the TV voice for when I was a kid watching Blazers game so just getting to chat with him uh was Unreal uh but you know the reason why I had Mike come on this week you know it was kind of on a sad note because you know Blazers and the NBA World Basketball world you know lost a legend and Mr Bill Walton passed away uh age of 71 and you know he is one of the most unique uh not just NBA players or celebrities but individuals probably probably ever created you know and Bill both from a high school level and obviously his dominance at ecla comes into Portland as a rookie gets a rough you know rough start but then finds their Groove and in 77 leads the Blazers to our only Championship glorious year um and so you know it was a shortlived run there mainly due to injuries and things but you know forever we’ll be in in in in the lore of of Portland uh you know Trailblazers basketball because it is our only championship and so you know but being able to see Bill come back from injury play with the Celtics win another championship get into broadcasting which is where a lot of people knew him from and then you know Pack 12 and just his his character you know on on on screen but on TV but who he was just in life and and uh so it incredible to have Mike come on uh the show and to share memories of bill and his interactions with him and so I I know you’re gonna love this this is a great episode I was excited uh to have Mike come on here and get to chat with him so you know without further Ado I won’t keep you busy we want to get to the good part we’re gonna take a quick break when we come back we will have Mike Barrett on the Rip City Roundtable [Music] podcast all right we’re back from break and we are here uh you know the if there was a mountain Rushmore of announcers play byplay for the Blazers Mike Barrett you for sure would be on that mountain and thank you for coming on the podcast today on the Rip City Round Table man how are you doing I’m doing good that’s I’m humbled to hear you say that I don’t I don’t um I I don’t think of it that way a lot of times and then I think back at history and then when something like this happens like this week with Bill Walton um and then I get a lot of calls I realize there’s not many of us probably who were from that era who are around yeah so I’m honored for uh to have you hear you say that and um so some great days and such a big big part of my life all of this was and the Blazers were and so many of these guys so um no I’m honored to come on and talk about stuff and share stories it’s it’s always fun cool well I’ll tell you one thing and I haven’t mentioned this to you but I was you know I was driving here and I was like thinking okay you know how how do I want to lead this off and and it just this came to me and it was perfect because you know your your wife Shelly she was a a teacher um at an elementary school and that’s where I went to school and so every every once in a while Shelly would bring uh like tickets to the game you know you I think you would have some or she it would be just random and uh and she would just pick random students or just people that she knew and you know here’s some tickets to the game and and I wasn’t a big like sports person growing up like I you know I just I didn’t really like basketball and I was like whatever and so but we got these tickets and we went to our first Blazers game because of the tickets she gave us that ideal came from you and we go and I just it was fell in love like and and I don’t even remember much about the game I think we lost it was probably you know I who whatever I don’t remember but that like that took me on this journey not just as a Blazers fan but just in sports and then I I joined the basketball team and you know got into competitive things and just all that stuff Mike and and you didn’t even know it but it literally stemmed from you giving those tickets to your wife and those passed down to me and it’s it’s been a great journey so I I want to say thank you you didn’t even know that and you’ve had an impact on me I love I love stories like that and um it probably was I’m trying to think when you were at West Hills but it it it probably had to be back when there were a lot of tickets that during the middle of the day they would lay on a counter at work and say hey anybody want to come to a game yeah but no those were those were fun times and I love hearing you know because sometimes in my life now I’m not as connected to that stuff anymore but I’ll have somebody I’ll be out at a store or something and somebody will walk up and it doesn’t Happ you know it’s been a few years now six or whatever years sure but I’ll have somebody walk up and tell me a story and then I met somebody uh it was actually through the MLB project and I was talking to her for a while and then she turned her phone around and showed me a picture of her when she was younger that she had Tak with me and my rce after a game I had known her for like a year now in this life and had no idea she goes I was going to show this to you at one point but I I I I love I love that that stuff still happens and um you know it’s it’s great to think that you played a part in somebody’s life but we all do that for each other you know I mean there there I I’ve got stories like that too um I mean even the first time we can get into this later but first time I met Bill Walton and then my dad was a coach all these re that I got into what I’m in and it all there’s Lynch pins throughout our lives and there’s a funny there’s funny Forks in the road to where if you hadn’t gone if you had been sick that day in school yeah you know and would you be where what you’re doing now I mean there’s there’s there’s a million things on our map lives that our our life life maps that led us to where we’re at now and it’s it’s it’s weird to think about yeah yeah and that’s why like the whole when people have regrets it it’s such a like doesn’t make S like don’t go down that road because you don’t know what that decision if you did that or not how that changes the next day and the next day and you know you you you live the life that you have and you kind of can reflect and look back at those moments you called it Lich pins right I think that’s such a that’s a really cool term um well okay so yeah so let’s dive so let’s get the backstory so you know you Mike and Mike was like the show I mean again growing up listen watching the Blazers it was always you guys like it was like your voice in my brain calling the game is how I remember games right and then if it’s on the radio it was it was Wheels right and so it’s like the both that was it like that was my childhood that was the Blazers and so but take us back how did you get to that point what what was the what was the journey that that that led you there Mike well it’s funny and then I’ll get to you know really how Mike and the Mike and Mike thing started because Bill Walton was kind of part of that story yeah I I grew grew up well my early years were in Idaho and my dad was a high school basketball coach and so we moved around a little bit because he was taking different jobs and when I was young I guess I was seven or eight we moved to Albany and he became the basketball coach at West Albany and and I was good at basketball but baseball was more my Sport and so when I got out of school I I was I got a I got recruited by Oregon State and I as a left-handed pitcher and this was before Oregon state was what Oregon state is now they were it was a good program but it wasn’t Elite like they are now yeah um but I went to Junior College for a year and pitched and toward the end of my freshman year and I had a really good freshman year uh I had arm trouble shoulder trouble and I I went to Oregon State the next year I probably should have well we talk about regrets I probably should have stayed one more year in junior college but I went there thinking that I I’ll get over this injury and I’ll get my fast ball back and I’ll everything will be fine well I went there in the fall and I didn’t have anything left and back then they didn’t monitor pitch counts like they do now and I’m around the program even at Wilsonville High School I’ve got a lot of friend Sons play and I watch how they manage pitch count and they manage arms for young pitchers well I didn’t really have that so I guess you could say I threw my arm out and I probably could have come back but the reason I bring that up is we talk about these situations we talked about a minute ago there’s an Umpire who was calling games and I didn’t I was going to go this far back but if you really want to know how this started kind of how it started you I say like where where were you born Mike and let’s go there no so you’re fine G back um I so anyway there was an Umpire there who I’d gotten to know really well and he was always a hlay umpire in high school and then I think he was involved in the high school all-star game that I the series that I played in and he was a sports information director at Oregon State at the time so when I get done I go to Oregon State and I’m realizing in the fall I’m not I’m not a baseball player anymore I mean I my shoulders gone I don’t know what I’m GNA do I’m enrolled in school but what does that mean I wasn’t ever really a great student didn’t take things that seriously because I liked a lot of kids I thought okay my career is going to be in baseball yeah so he said well since you’re done playing he goes why don’t you come up and work us uh at the media media relations sports information at Oregon State and so I said okay it was at Burger King in Corvalis on Ninth Street that I ran into him if I had not had that conversation and I think I’ve said this before and but but not for a long time if I had not run into him if I had not chosen Burger King that day for whatever reason and he had not and he had not been there yeah none of this would have happened because I I knew him I was comfortable with him and I said okay and I I I’d always been interested in broadcasting even as kid because I was around sports with my dad being a coach forever so there were tapes of me calling games as a little kid sitting in front of the TV but I didn’t know at that point that’s what I wanted to do yeah so once I started working with media relations and sports information I just realized okay this is I thought I’d be a writer for a long time writing always came pretty easy to me and I went ahead and I majored in journalism toward the end of my college career I there were some broadcast opportunities that came up with the campus TV station and radio station kbvr and oddly enough the guy that I started working with as my producer director at kbv kbvr was Jeff curtain who ended up being the director of broadcasting with the Blazers who I worked with for years yeah so Jeff and I go way back cool so anyway I get done with school had called some games didn’t know what I was going to do moved to Portland and I I was selling golf clubs I I didn’t know but I happened to I was looking for a place to live and a friend of mine who was working at Channel 6 downtown said hey come I got an extra room in my apartment so I start uh hanging out with him a little bit although he was working a weird shift I didn’t know what I was going to do what I was goingon to be and he says hey there’s a radio station in Hillsboro he goes I know you did some broadcast stuff in Oregon State there’s a little station in Hillsboro that does high school games and they’re looking for somebody to call some high school boys and girls games just on the radio just using the old Marty setup where you take the van you lift up the antenna to the station yeah so I so I did that for for a fairly short time but then because of my past at Oregon State I knew everybody in the media because that was Gary Payton’s senior year oh okay and so all of the media all of the games were on TV so I had worked in TV trucks as a student assistant I had worked at the Press table I had held microphones I I did I had done everything yeah and and uh and then even when the Blazers the playoffs in 90 and 90 actually 991 okay I was a runner for CBS Sports then and then NBC took it over in ‘ 91 so I I I again I was around it I got to know some people um and and but I again I didn’t know that what that’s what I was goingon to do but then when I was calling those games high school games I probably called 10 to 15 high school games okay this job at kxl radio in Portland came open that so had told me about they’re going to hire a sports director they had been using RI Rick mezer at Channel 6 as their oh yeah back then radio stations did that where they would take the sports guy on the local TV station and he would cut in and do a sports update well they wanted to do more Sports okay I I in no way was qualified for that job I I had done a few games calling play byplay and I remember I had an interview I got an interiew and lied about what my abilities were yeah I know how to run all this this equipment these machines I didn’t know anything we we’ll call it exag exaggeration Mike a l too far yeah well okay but it it was yeah so I go out one night to K in Hillsboro and I kind of get a crash course on how to run these machines back then they were using carts cartridges as your sound you know so different now but I at least knew enough and then I get a second interview I remember telling my dad I said I’m I’m getting a third interview at this radio station in this job that I in no way shape or form I’m qualified to do yeah um and then they throw me on the air one night to do sport Updates this is during these are during news blogs you know and I do pretty well I guess I’m just in there giving baseball scores and reading the AP wire and so they hire me oddly enough and it was for a morning shift and evening shift of morning drive evening Drive radio back then in news radio and that was the thing and it was in ’92 when I got that job it was in the spring and the Blazers are making a playoff run and they were trying to make a bigger dent in sports because kex kind of had that market cornered so they send me to the finals in ’92 to Chicago wow so I ended up you know being back there uh that was my first my first traveling gig was the finals in ’92 wow so I was around everything and I was still being a runner for NBC while I’m because those guys wanted me to work for him again so while I’m doing sports updates on the phone these old cell phones big block cell phone I am the stage manager for dick enberg magic all those guys and I’m standing I’m just handing him cards you know is what a stage manager does and you kind of take care of the so I kind of fell in love with that and I kind of thought that would be a cool thing to do but eight so eight years go by it’s TR a fast forward through I was on the Oregon Duck football broadcast team as the sideline reporter for football I did some basketball games uh some playby playay got decent at it um and then in 99 the Blazers made they had decided they were going to do have a studio host for radio halime they needed a guy to kind of do some of the magazine shows TV and then they got a WNBA team as well oh yeah in 99 so I hadn’t really applied for it and finally Scott Zachary who you you have talked about a little bit you knew Scott Scott was a director and or a producer excuse me for broadcast he wasn’t at that time he came to me in the media room at a Blazer game one night he said’ why have you not applied for this job I had gotten to know Scott pretty well and I said I don’t know I just guess I haven’t I’m busy I’m working a split shift I’m I mean I was grinding it was just I was doing every job at Radio yeah said he said well you should so I did and Harry Hut who was then the president of the Blazers he he hired me and I basically was the studio host for radio halftime post game I was the WNBA play-by-play broadcaster on TV and radio I was the editor of Rip City magazine and I also wrote the game program and so I would do all the Blazer game stuff and then in the Summers I would go call the WNBA games and I also wrote their game program and all of this I was doing everything oh my go and so that yeah so that continued for a couple of years like that I was just kind of doing everything for the Blazers and they had a what was the show called it was a show my my first actually I can say this they threw me in the studio they the little Studio which is still where the studio is in Moda and it was nothing like it is now and I think it was to start the season they they they call me and then they said have you ever read off a teleprompter and I said no but I’ve read copy for a long time on radio I think I could probably figure it out so I said okay Saturday night we have a live show on KGW NBC in Portland you’re on for an hour live reading off a teleprompter I said okay here we go and we we pulled it off somehow and then um I guess it would have been an ‘ O2 they uh made some changes and Pete pranica who had been the play-by-play broadcaster he went he was he actually ended up in Memphis where he still as the play byplay broadcaster I had gotten to know Steve Jones well which was humbling for me because I had listened to Steve forever his Courtside shows before Blazer games were legendary I listen to those every night I listened to every Bill Shanley broadcast I was that kid so I knew everybody I was very aware of the media as a kid so um they we got into the fall they hadn’t replaced Pete it was an awkward situation I didn’t know if I had the job I knew they had interviewed some guys from outside the market again I was young for the position I was very inexperienced for the position all I had was some w BA games that I had done but they liked me enough I guess they gave me the Blazers play-by-play role and called a couple of preseason games and our season opener was at Utah I I still have some clips of that game I think I don’t have many games unfortunately but I do have that one yeah and Steve Jones and I took off and did the broadcast and I did I did three years with Steve I forgot did that with with Snapper three years with Steve before mik okay yeah and then ironic Al it it was it was at that time that Steve Jones and Bill Walton and Bob cus were the number one NBC broadcast team you know the most the funniest they were they were the TNT Studio show before the TNT Studio show and Bill made that that way yeah and he would you know Steve was very straight A lot of times but you could get Steve going yeah and I was young enough to where Steve was hard on me in a good way but I could draw Steve out a little bit well bill could really draw him out yeah so Snapper being on that broadcast team we would go off on a Blazer road trip then and Steve would have to go off and do NB NBC games with his other gig so they would move rice to TV from Radio to fill in when Steve was gone well Mike and I clicked and I I don’t want to say Steve and I didn’t click it was just different and Steve was getting busy enough and that’s when the contract went to ABC and ESPN so he was doing these times Square shows uh for ESPN and then he started having some health trouble um Steve did and so they they just decided hey you know why don’t we instead of sharing Steve and then patchworking the other broadcast together and then radio is hurt when Steve’s gone because Mike moved over so rice is going back and forth they finally decided just to name rice the permanent radio analyst or TV analyst so he became my partner I think that must have been an 05 I’m not sure if I have the dates right yeah that makes sense yeah4 or5 okay rice became my partner and then we did we did I guess 12 years together so that’s kind of a quick on how it started how I got the job and yeah no that’s great it’s like as you’re telling those stories I’m like piecing together like okay when where where was I when I was listening to you and oh I do remember that and you know I remember some of those like where Walton would be on the cast with with with with Steve on those NBC I remember one game and I can kind of lead into here and ask you some questions about um about Walton but uh there was a home there was a home game and it might have been a playoff game and they gave they gave plush plush dolls you know okay I know where you’re going and and I want to say and you can correct me here and again I that I think Scotti Pippen got a technical or something and and the and or something happened and the crowd went ballistic and just started chucking the plushy dolls onto the court and it was like all these Bill Bill Walton plush dolls and I I would not throw mine I like kept mine cuz I was like I’m not giving this up but I just remember just the booze and these so that did happen I’m not like dreaming that Mike that was a thing no you no that happened what and what Scotty got ejected in that game okay and I was up off the floor because I was doing radio but people didn’t see and there just wasn’t as many cameras I don’t think then well Scotty gets ejected and he starts to head down the tunnel by the Blazer bench and there are people who would corroborate this and remember this yeah for some Reon I remember this before the Blazer buddy Walton balls raided out of the STS Scotty grabs a tray from a waiter it a round plastic tray that they were serving and Scotty throws the tray and it goes off and it lands on the court nobody really saw it I saw it everybody said but I think the league saw it I don’t think it was on camera he would have been suspended obviously he throws this huge tray yeah so it’s during that and was a time when Rasheed was at his worst with technical fouls and the 41 technicals and all this so somebody throws a Walton Blazer buddy ball doll on the floor all of a sudden it is raining it’s like a hat trick in hockey but it’s just I swear every Blazer Buddy doll that was handed out in the lower bowl ended up on the court and they’re literally sweeping them off the floor oh my yeah that was funny and I remember Walton’s Rea and I wasn’t watching that broadcast because I was doing one but I remember looking at him as his dolls his tribute dolls they’re just flying out of the stands onto the those those were interesting times oh interesting times oh my goodness well let’s let’s use that as the segue so you know of course few days ago you know we get the news that um you know Walton passes away age 71 and you know we we talk about you being on the mountain Rushmore you know for for Blazers you know play byplay and announcing and things like that I I definitely would say bills on that mountain Rushmore for Blazer’s players you know being there MVP delivering a championship and all those things and so give me some give me some memories and thoughts I know you had mentioned kind of the first time you you had met bill um what were some of those first memories that came back when you when you heard the news well it’s funny because I I got to be around a little bit because my dad being a coach was a jack Ramsey disciple and so he had gotten to know Jack and then had gotten to know Rick Adelman really well in late years and um so I I had gotten to come to a training camp and I was young then um and so one thing I remember about Bill is I tried to talk to him a couple of times I was a little kid I mean I and I remember being at gil Coliseum in a preseason game this had to be this had to be Bill’s rookie year I think this was 75 I was really young and I just used to walk around because I was used to you know uh gyms and and to that extent a Coliseum in Corvalis and it was a Blazer preseason game and Bill had a headband on because he was even more HIIT his rookie year if you remember I mean he’d wear a headband like the braided headband and long hair oh yeah and he was on the bench um and he had beening up and it probably wasn’t the best time to ask for an autograph but I did anyway and so I went over there and I I just remember you know you have memories when you’re when you’re I guess how how old must I have been I must have been six or seven and I was walking around the floor by myself and I just walked over to the bench and I asked for an autograph and I remember he looked at me and then he said no and he’s warming up you know it was a wrong time to ask he was covered in sweat I remember this hippie dude and he’s huge yeah and so that was my first really interaction with him yeah and then I had known him a little bit you know I had done some radio shows radio hits never really knew him that well but but um later on in fact it was toward the end I I started uh I was the MC every year for the Maurice Lucas auction the benefit auction the ml20 auction and Bill was always a speaker at that and so he was always at my table so he was so wonderful in in the years that I did that because he had then you know what was humbling to me always is when I would meet somebody like when I met I was at T we had an off day in Atlanta one time we went to TNT and watched that show and Charles and Shaq and those guys are all like they knew me they’re all like hey yeah you guys do the you know they knew because they watch they sit and watch games yeah yeah so those were always humbling moments and and I and I got that from Bill a little bit because he was very complimentary of our broadcast and and felt he knew me to some extent and then I was humbled because I’m like man you’re Bill Waldman me I remember watching you my whole life and uh watching the championship run is I think a lot of kids my age uh because I was in grade school school then um you know when Blazer Mania really started and Bill was the reason that and then my dad was such a fan of the Ramsay system and everything else but anyway back to those those auction events so I did a lot of events with him when I was at the Blazers too and he would come back and do commercials and people forget that there was a long time that he didn’t come back there were bad there was bad blood there were bad feelings about how his injury was handled how his feet were handled it was it was one of those ended way too soon things you know because people forget the year after they won the title The 7778 season they were blitzing the NBA and people said this is this is going to be you know this is going to be the championship team and they could rip off four or five they’re young and and then all of a sudden the injuries just destroyed that team then some bad feelings and then bill is traded um but in the later years when we were I really to know him he was at those events when I would not only introduce him on stage we would be on stage together and we couldn’t get him to shut up and you know you’re you’re doing an auction and they always say with an auction you got to keep the crowd engaged and Bill would get the microphone and he would go for an hour and and and I’m I’ve got the organizers of the auction saying we gotta move on it’s people have been sitting here for three hours and Bill would keep going and going and going but the cool thing about him and everybody has said now the last few days everybody has a story about when you when somebody passed like this and then you have everybody’s got a personal tale about their interaction with Bill and I’m fortunate to have it and you mentioned my wife and Bill was so great to her I always remembered her name and if one thing is cool is I’m not great with names like I’ll always I’ll run into somebody I’ll say to my wife who was that I don’t remember their name I’m I should know their name I hate that I’m not good at that one of the biggest things that impressed me about is that he remembered everybody’s names and I had told him about my kids I had showed him pictures I don’t think they’d ever met him but he always remembered the even the next year when he’d come back and I would see him again he’d ask about my kids he would talk to my wife Shelly how are you and then he’d get up on stage and he’d talk about me and rice and Cathy Mike’s wife and Shelly my wife and he just remember these things and it’s a little thing but it’s not because he was probably he probably the best person celebrity wise that I’ve ever known at affirming you and making you feel important and making you feel honored even in the little things and I know he did that for everybody not just me but my of course my experiences with him that stuck in my mind so much about who he was and then something that we all should try to assimilate is his just absolute love of life and one of those guys kind of like my dad I would say and not the way that my dad would capture a room because he wasn’t like Bill in that way but I said about my dad passed a few years ago and I said about my dad when we were having a little memorial service I’m not sure if I if I ever saw a moment where I thought my dad had a bad day he just never did every day was great he never got caught up in stuff and of course I’m not that way I’m mad at myself but I’m not that way bill is one of those guys on steroids like that is terms of never having a bad day loving every moment noticing the clouds in the sky noticing the trees and and and it’s it should rub off on all of us it doesn’t at times and then it takes a moment like this it takes an incident like this when he passes for me to even lay in bed the last few nights and think my gosh I got to be more like Bill Walton and I think the world would be a better if we all thought that we should be more like Bill Walton yeah I I mean so well said I I think the thing that sticks with me is that you said he would affirm you and just make you feel super important and remember your name and that that is that takes intentionality like that isn’t something that you can really fake like you have to really be about that and like you said Is That Celebrity Status there’s probably and you’ve been around hundreds of of celebrity athletes and probably other celebrities and you know probably a lot of them are courteous and nice and shake your hand and and then they go about their day just because they do that with a bunch of people but for somebody like Bill that can remember a name of your wife and genu like look you in the eye and make you feel important for that one minute two minute interaction or however long it is I mean that is a skill set that is just remarkable regardless of if you were an MVP in an MBA League or some person that did something else not in the spotlight like that is such a unique unque individual and you’re right it takes like when someone dies to go back and remember those things but sometimes there has to be that trigger to like make you be a better person you know and all those things so that’s man that’s a really good take yeah yeah and and there are a couple of guys as you’re saying that I’m thinking of Bill walking through the Blazer offices which he did a few times and just knowing everybody’s name you know the other guy who was also like that who knew everybody’s name in the organization who had walk Cube to cube on a G was PJ carlesimo and his time in Portland has kind of Forgotten a little bit and I got to know PJ because I was covering him then because I didn’t work for him yet and I got to know him a little bit then but then afterwards when PJ became an analyst uh in the playoffs that’s when I got to know PJ and he of course had watched our broadcast and so was happy that I had gone from a kid doing radio to where I was at and it really wasn’t and I had spent a lot of time with PJ but when the when we were playing Houston in the playoffs must have been in 14 I want to say I’m not I I I didn’t I hadn’t thought about this but we were in our hotel it was Chris Weber we had uh we beat Houston in games one and two LaMarcus Aldridge had the massive games in games one and two we go down there and upset them really in games one and two yeah those two nights and we we during the regular season you don’t go get a beer after a game because you’re off to the next game you’re on the plane well the playoffs you’re kind of in a town for a few days yeah so we go into this little bar at the hotel and it was Chris Weber and PJ and I got to sit with PJ for those few nights just had a blast but I brought up PJ only because yeah he’s another guy who I admired because he never forgot your name he never forgot your story I’m just I wish I was better at that but he and Bill Walton are probably on the Mount Rushmore of guys who remember yeah everything about you and your name and your wife’s name and your kidss names and I just admire that so much and I want to be more like that yeah well when these you know these these Giants of the game you know when they have just these quick moments with an individual and may never see them again for them to remember names and things like that just sticks with people and becomes those like Lich pin moments that maybe they’re having a bad day and they’re like wow Bill Walton remembered my name like you know and that puts you on yeah another trajectory so well well good stuff Mike I well and it’s and it’s like and it’s like the whole it’s it’s it’s the whole thing of and I don’t want to go too long here I get longwinded but it’s the whole thing of you know and and in it’s kind of something I I have a podcast now which talk it’s a little bit more spiritual it’s a little bit more of a Christian men’s broadcast but we talk a lot about when we talk to men about this whole idea of taking every thought captive and anybody who spent any time in study or anything else has heard that line and the one thing I always try to remember and the one thing I try to encourage people with and this really applies to these people we’re talking about like AB is if you take every thought captive literally every thought captive not only does it keep you out of trouble and keeps your mind clear and it keeps you out of some of the pitfalls that we fall into as men and women uh in terms of just the life being overwhelming but I I think and I wouldn’t have thought of this before but I think in terms of even like honoring people and making them feel important like Bill Walton always did is I got the feeling that even as he was noticing nature which he always talked about and every city he was in was the greatest city in the world and and you know whatever moment he had was the greatest ever it was because he was he had mastered the thought and the idea of taking every thought captive and I just that’s what I think about when I think about him you know that’s interesting we have a good friend and she thinks her name’s Kathy shout out Kathy she thinks everything is the greatest is this is the greatest movie this is the greatest dinner this is the greatest person and a lot of times like our friend group you know we just kind of like whatever man like kind of we make fun of it a little bit but in reality man I want to live like that too you know and and that of all the things I’ve read about Bill and watching documentary and talking with you like that totally was his approach and that wasn’t fake like he definitely thought this is the greatest day this is the greatest thing and we do we just need even a little bit of that mic if we had a little bit of that I’d take it the world would be a better place for sure and you know and I think about and that last thought about Bill you know I was talking about the first time I met him and of course speech impediment and a stutterer and a mumbler you even go back in some of his early interviews and in the championship year he didn’t like doing media he was uncomfortable in interviews he put his head down he was mumble he he knew he had a hard time talking and it’s almost like at that point he was um I don’t want to say reclusive but I do remember a story after the Blazers won the title and we were from Idaho you know my when I was young and so we knew a lot of people over there and then people that corroborate the story and know about it yeah so he rides his 10-speed bike down to the championship parade it’s kind of legendary he just hops on his bike and somebody steals his bike at the championship parade well two weeks later yeah in two weeks later when when they’re talking about what you’re going to do now and how much you love the spotlight and Bill seemingly was somebody who would seek out the spotlight well it wasn’t that way and in fact I think it was the opposite I had a a friend of a relative of mine in Idaho and they’re up in northern Idaho at a lake a campground this is not a month after they won the championship and they’re walking around this Lake and they’re sitting by the lake on a blanket is Walton in a pair of jean shorts and nothing else sitting there by Lake and and and then he had come into a little store in this little tiny town and they Rec you know he’s 611 he walks in red hair people recognized him and he really didn’t really want to talk but that I think about that because as much as he liked the spotlight he clearly I mean he loved nature he always talked about that but that’s a funny story that I was always told by my dad that he just got the heck out of here after the title he didn’t go to on a cruise or to Jamaica or some Island he went up to some Lake out of nowhere in in Idaho and was just sitting by himself yeah and then I think that you know he went from having the trouble he did communicating to what he meant communicating in the rest of his career and how he’s really known by obviously this generation is probably much more as a broadcaster and as a personality than as a player and clearly he was an amazing player and NBA MVP and the legend of UCLA and everything else but somebody who took that many different paths in their life and impacted that many people people um it’s a shame he’s gone but in some ways I’m sure he would be happy that so many stories like this are being told about him now and how many people loved him and how many people are trying to profit from the example he set in clear just absolutely loving people and loving life yeah yeah well well said man yeah 100% agree with that he would be he’s smiling right now he’s he’s appreciating it and he just wants everybody to probably say this is the greatest this is it’s all the greatest so absolutely greatest day ever biggest greatest day ever greatest thing uh well cool Mike well hey I want to I want to wrap this up with just talking about and you alluded this a little bit but kind of what you’re up to now you know you’re talking about the um faith-based podcast or tell me a little bit more about that yeah it’s called vertical Pursuit um my pastor who’s one of my best friends Mike tatlock he is actually the team chaplain for the Blazers um Mike was a full in chaplain so before every Blazers game for every game every NBA game every team has a team chaplain in every sport most people know that so before every game um visiting and home teams not all of them but usually eight to 10 of them will come together for a 15minute chapel service and it’s usually just uh a thought or two uh maybe something to think about uh they pray together and then they take then they it’s always in us like in a weit room I know the Blazers one is so Mike began I I had suggested him as a replacement then La of course was the legendary team chaplain for the Blazers and Al was starting to get busy and phasing out so Mike took over probably in 15 probably being the full-time Blazers team chaplain and the relationships that he has with these guys and these aren’t stories that are ever talked about but Mike ended up doing CJ mccollum’s wedding he did Myers Leonard’s wedding he he’s a hugee he and Dame Lillard I know to this day talk a couple times a week just one of those guys to to lean on for the players um so kind of because of the chaplain work that he does and he does so many things I thought well and he he’s a great Pastor he gives great messages but um we started a podcast a year or so ago and it was kind of based on the same thing he goes in and talks about and it’s designed around I I suppose men and struggles for men and um kind of not keeping stuff bottled up and and I had had a couple of friends and people in my my circles who had like committed suicide and you just start realizing how much pain there is for a lot of people and a lot of men and we take on a lot of those issues we don’t always have the answers we don’t try to say that we do we try to get conversations started about some of these things but it’s because of the chaplain work that he’s done and a lot of the Chapels that I for fortunately got to be in and hear him talk and then to see these players who who really didn’t have that resource necessarily because you you got coaches and you got your teammates a lot of those guys don’t have a lot of really close friends that they can confide in and kind of a coort as we like to call it to go through life people to keep you accountable people to uh to give you a chance to uh you know talk about things that are painful in your life and and and i’ you we’ve talked a lot about guys don’t want to come home and break the peace at home a lot of times by dumping out their crap at home yeah so where do you do it and so I think the podcast was was kind of uh at least one of the major goals of it was to get guys thinking about these things and to um get them talking and to get them together and to get them into groups um you know like I talked about some of it is very some of our episodes are very faith-based where we talk about what the Bible teaches some of them aren’t some of just are regular stuff that everybody struggles with but it’s one of those things that in a lot of the stuff that I’m doing now which I can get into just briefly yeah this is one of those things that I feel like I was kind of gifted with the uh with communication and being a broadcaster being able to talk being able to formulate things this is one of those things I still have kind of a little foot in the broadcast area even though it’s a podcast and everybody is a podcast now yeah but it’s been really rewarding and really fun it’s not something that we’ll ever monetize it’s not something we make a dime doing we just do it because it’s we feel like it’s necessary and then we hear stories like I’m sure you do of of somebody who heard one of our podcasts or some stranger will get a hold of us via email and said my gosh I didn’t think anybody else thought the way that I’m thinking I didn’t think anybody else was struggling with what I’m struggling with so to hear those stories make Mike and I realize that it’s a very valuable podcast for to do for some people and if we can just affect one guy if we get one guy into communication into Community into a situation where he has support and can talk about the things that are bothering him then we’ve we’ve won and I think that we have have done that and more so anyway if you want to check it out it’s on Spotify iTunes there’s an app vertical Pursuit it’s the VP app is what it is um so I appreciate it I appreciate you letting me talk about it and again I’m not trying to promote it monetarily just it’s kind of a cool thing we’re doing I am still involved with the Portland Diamond project um trying to bring Major League Baseball to Portland and we’re still grinding away it’s been like six years good things are going well I can’t I I never can get into much detail because so much of it is confidential sure I’m not the smartest guy in that group I’m just kind of out front and I know what’s going on there I kind of like you know I I I’ll do interviews now and then when there’s something to talk about I don’t know what our timeline is but I know we’re getting down to where we’re going to know one way or the other I still do a lot of commercials I the voice of Bart still I’ve done them for years uh I I do a lot of work for triager grills I do uh a Toyota dealership a Jeep Ram dealership a four-wheel drive company a Golf Cart Company an RV company kind of just as their you now with now now that content has divided into you know from just TV commercials and radio commercials now to digital and so many different ways to get your word out as a company I do a lot of that with Nick Livingston who was my partner in that who was a producer of mine with the Blazers uh Nick is an amazing photographer editor we have a lot of fun doing that we story tellie where we’ve shot some real estate some big ranches in eastern Oregon and we do have like kind of a documentary that stuff’s really fun for me I never really got to do a ton of that in my NBA days a little bit and we could now I get to write and do it so yeah well a lot of things I don’t know what I’ll be when I grow up one day but uh I’m having fun well Mike two two things I’ve learned about you and telling you when you telling your story about all the different things you did when you when you joined the the Blazers you back then running nine 10 different things right so it doesn’t surprise me that you’re able to do that now but you’re you are one of the most skillful communicators that I and obviously maybe I’m biased but it doesn’t matter if it’s calling Blazers games or making content for musicians or have a podcast or anything like those things translate Mike and so I’m I’m I’m so happy to hear these things that you’re doing and and you talk about you know the podcast and you know we we work with podcasters and we always the first question I always ask is kind of the the why behind the show you know and it’s okay if they say I want to do this concept and I want to try to monetize it make some extra money totally fine that’s your why I get it we can Let’s help get there but the shows that typically have I think a better reach sometimes and can hit that impact is when it’s like hey I just want to I just I want to reach a certain person or I want to tell this story I don’t care if this makes a dime but if it changes one person’s life then it’s worth it and and I think that I love that’s what you’re doing with vertical and I I mean I will push it I will promote that I love that you’re doing that I think from a men’s approach to life like you said it you know you either you get up you go to work stuff’s happening you go home and you don’t want to just throw that up when you get to the house and then now you just get in this Rhythm where that could almost go months without really sharing or getting to the bottom of what’s going on so having those Outlets I think is so important so important so I love that you’re doing that yeah it it is no I appreciate you saying that and and and that is the Catalyst behind some of that was you know a couple of the stories of guys I know there was a guy who I didn’t really know that well but I have friends who know him well and you know he killed himself and his friends are like that that guy he was he was great great he was the coach of his kids’ teams he was always happy well clearly there was something underneath the surface that nobody saw and nobody knew about and he wasn’t comfortable talking about and so I think those were inspiring things and and our podcast isn’t insanely heavy I mean it sounds like it when I talk about stuff like that but it’s just conversation and usually they have a theme but not always um but it is fun and Mike is a wonderful Communicator in his own right and a wonderful human being a great Pastor a great leader of men so I I just love I love doing this with him and it’s probably among the most rewarding things I’ve ever done and I don’t know who’s I don’t know who’s listening we don’t gauge it might be 20 guys be 2000 I have no idea but it doesn’t matter and that’s the beautiful part yeah for sure I love it well Mike hey thank you for taking the time out of your day to come on and talk about your story sharing some memories of of Bill and and catch catching us up on what’s going on in in your life so we I appreciate the time man anytime I’d love to do it I love obviously getting on and talking about stuff and stories and it’s funny how I don’t do it that often it come to something like this so you you’ve made me re think about these things and rekindle memor so thank you for having me cool all right buddy well hey appreciate the time we’ll see you later okay all right that’s the episode we’re so grateful thank you for joining us I I know you enjoyed listening to Mike Barrett tells stories both about his time with the Blazers his memories of Bill Walton just both of those I mean just incredible I I literally forgot we were doing a podcast I was just listening and enjoying all the takes that he had just his time with the team I mean I think Mike probably had every position at the Blazers at some point maybe besides general manager or owner you know and so just what a what a tremendous treat great to see what he’s doing now his podcasting career taken off and all the content he’s making things he’s doing like Mike’s a guy that he he ain’t gonna be just sitting on on his couch doing nothing the guy’s a hard worker very skilled was it was incredible to have him on the show uh I hope you enjoyed it I was glad he got to come on the round table and and and and chat with us about some Rip City memories and and basketball so anyway thanks for joining again just just remembering the life of Bill Walton and all the uh the love that he had for people and his his life and just the largess of it and just how everything was the best the best day ever the best game ever and maybe you think this is the best podcast ever if we had bill on he’d probably say that so anyway shout out to him and his family and for everything he’s done for the community basketball life Humanity uh we love you Bill and thanks Mike for coming on the podcast and remember it is a great day to be a blazer w [Music]

In Episode 14, Mike Barrett, former Portland Trailblazers announcer, joins the Rip City Roundtable to discuss the legend of Bill Walton who sadly passed away earlier this week. Mike shares memories of the legendary center who led the Blazers to their only NBA Championship in 1977. We also talk about Mike’s journey to becoming the voice of the Blazers and what he is up to now. Trust me, you will not want to miss this episode!